Ahiara as Metaphor

By: Ikeazor Akaraiwe

48 years later to the exact month, Ahiara, a town in Mbaise, Imo State of Nigeria, is back in the news.

Five years ago, Emeritus Pope Benedict appointed Bishop Okpalaeke from Anambra State, to the vacant seat of Bishop of Ahiara Diocese. A section of indigenous priests and the laity refused to allow him assume office on the ground that they wanted an 'indigene' (hereinafter referred to as "engine" rather than 'non-indigene' (hereinafter referred to as "no-engine"). Bishop Okpalaeke the 'no-engine' is from Anambra State. Efforts by leaders of the church in Nigeria similarly failed, as the Mbaise priests continued to insist that one of them rather than Bishop Okpalaeke must be appointed the Bishop of Ahiara Diocese.

The crisis, it is reported, has resulted in huge disruption of activities in the diocese, as you can well imagine. Important events such as ordination and confirmation, exclusively reserved for bishops, have not held for five years. In a last-ditch effort to resolve the crisis, the Pope invited the priests and laity and the party backing Bishop Okpalaeke to nominate five representatives each for private audience with him. It is reported that Bishop Okpalaeke’s side complied, but so deep-seared is the parapoism of the 'engine' priests that they ignored the Pope’s summons, as reported by Sahara Reporters but denied by the priests.

Ahiara is historically important. It was at Ahiara on June 1, 1969 that Biafra head of state Odumegwu-Ojukwu outlined that incredible vision of inclusiveness and greatness, called the Ahiara Declaration: Principles of the Biafra Revolution. Modeled on Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere's 1967 Arusha Declaration, it was one of multiple documents drafted by Biafra's National Guidance Committee. The declaration was a roadmap for Biafra.

Fast forward to the same month of June 2017, and the news erupts that Roman Catholic priests from Ahiara/Mbaise, people presumably more knowledgeable and closer to God than the rest of us, have issued their own declaration, which sounds like 'we will submit to no other Igbo but our own clan Igbo'. It is not coincidence that Ahiara 2017 is coming to the fore same month as the Ahiara Declaration of 1969, and the heightening of agitation for the resuscitation of Biafra. What Ahiara 2017 says in a nutshell is, Biafra is no guarantee for inclusiveness. Nigeria as currently structured is no guarantee either. But Biafra will certainly be torn asunder by clannishness. Biafra 1 died on that alter among several other alters. Anyone who was thought to hold a different view in Biafra 1 was called a saboteur and ostracised.

Chairman Mao's "Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend ..." was alien in Biafra 1. Biafra 1 lost the advantage of a cross-pollination of ideas. Ahiara 2017 is the encapsulation of the anti-one hundred thoughts philosophy as, in the universal church, it rejects church leadership from outside the clan. It forewarns the death knell of new Biafra.  Ahiara 2017 redirects the prudent and wise to a new but old song, the restructure of Nigeria, whether along the lines of DEVOLUTION of more powers from Federal to State to Local governments; or REGIONALISM or FISCAL FEDERALISM.

A restructured Nigeria is win-win for ndi Igbo because we continue reaping on our nationwide investments while having sufficient autonomy to run our federating units according to our socio-cultural realities and idiosyncrasies. As it is, the Nigerian unitary quasi-federation has produced an unequal yoke, which is dragging down the stronger without exactly helping the weak. It needs restructure. The Igbo are true Nigerians. We travel everywhere and set up home. We invest as if we are indigenous to that area. The Kwankwaso name in Kano is actually Okonkwo and Sons, hausanised. An Okonkwo who set up home in Kano in the 1920s. This story can be replicated nationwide. There is an Igbo man today in Gobirawa settlement in Gamawa, Katagum Emirate, Bauchi North, irrespective of the fact that the place is too remote to reach by regular transport, being about five hours by mule or foot, and no cell phone network there. He has been there for over 20 years, runs the only shop there, and is the only English speaker in the community. He also speaks the Gobirawa variety of Hausa, which is so unique that it is considered a language of its own.

We do not need Biafra for now, unless the anti-Restructurists dig in and refuse to allow us discuss. That is what Ahiara 2017 tells me. But if Restructure fails, Biafra would have been forced upon us. However, we have not even tried Restructure as an ethnic agenda. Restructure is in fact considered a Yoruba agenda. Let us nationalise Restructure, whether along the lines of DEVOLUTION of more powers from Federal to State to Local governments; or REGIONALISM or FISCAL FEDERALISM. Let us reach out to advocates of Restructure, first of all.